Laundry treating appliances, such as clothes washers, clothes dryers, refreshers, and non-aqueous systems, may have a configuration based on a rotating drum that defines a treating chamber in which laundry items are placed for treating. The laundry treating appliance may also have a controller that implements a number of pre-programmed cycles of operation. Optimizing these cycles of operation while minimizing water and energy utilization is increasingly important. To achieve this balance between cycle optimization and water and energy minimization, it is important not only to know the mass of a laundry load, but also the type of fabric or garments in the drum. Known appliances can detect the laundry load mass using “dry” load sensing, but cannot reliably detect different “types” of fabric or garments without utilizing expensive sensors or increasing the cycle time.